5 thoughts on “Experimental Map Styles”

I had been playing around with 5x5x5 parsec cubic sub-sectors, represented by 5 stacked isometric planes. The stars were all centered within the gridlines, so placement wasn’t exactly organic, but it made distance calculation easy. I figured full sectors would consist of a 3x3x3 grid of sub-sectors, which is a pretty good sized chunk of space to play with. I do like the look of your Nautalistic map, though.

I considered a 3d Hexgrid. But in the end, I just can’t suspend disbelief in a hexmap with neatly aligned systems anymore. The map with hexes was an attempt at a compromise, but I think ultimately it just looks… messy. My opinion only. Hexmaps are very convenient, as you say.

Hey Nils! I was working on a similar mapping project, if you’re interested, I wrote a program that reads coordinates to produce a starmap reasonably similar to your nautalistic map. It’s no small task keeping all the data on a map readable and useful so I feel your pain!

Setting the program up is not trivial, but if you’re interested I could share what I have.

The BBC posted an article about modern designs of research stations in the antarctic. There are some really, really gorgeous designs and these are of course much more practical than ye olde wooden shed.

Related

This was posted on Reddit a while ago; someone created graphics showing what Earth sunsets may look like if our Sun were replaced with another star. I do not know how accurate these images are, but they are surely beautiful:

Click to embiggen the image.

Related

Astronomers have discovered an exoplanet, in the system, J1407b, which is 200 times the size of the ring system of Saturn. There are also gaps in the rings which they think indicate the presence of moons there. The Contact Light setting has got to have at least one gigantic ring system like this!

Ancient Star System

In other news, Kepler has found an ancient planetary system. The system, Kepler-444, is 11.2 billion years old. It has at least five planets – all of them too hot to support life – but it means ancient systems can exist amidst much younger stars. Planets on which civilizations rose and fell long before life even got started elsewhere.